How to implement or use

Expected Improvement

The expected improvement in bootup times from using this technique depends
(of course) on the time is takes for the hard disk to spin up. For some systems,
the hard disk spinup time dominates the boot up time. In this case, the time saved is approximately the time of the kernel initialization.

Brand

Size

Time to Ready

Maxtor

3.5"

7.5 seconds

Seagate

3.5"

6.5 - 10 seconds *

Hitachi

3.5"

6 - 10 seconds *

Hitachi

2.5"

4 - 5 seconds

Toshiba

2.5"

4 seconds

Hitachi microdrive

1.0"

1 - 1.5 seconds

depends on the number of platters

During retries, these times can be extended by 10's of seconds, but this is rare.